


Hot Dad at Family Video

by SixBlueMarbles



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Kid Fic, M/M, Single Parent Steve
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-07
Updated: 2015-03-15
Packaged: 2018-03-16 17:37:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3496997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SixBlueMarbles/pseuds/SixBlueMarbles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bucky goes to what is possibly the last video rental place on the planet and makes a new friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Family Video Run

Bucky really hadn’t been aware that there were still places like this open. After Blockbuster had closed their doors, Bucky had thought that video rental places had gone the way of the dinosaurs but here he was.

  
Family Video was housed in a solitary building that had it’s front windows were covered with movie posters from the last couple years and the carpet inside was worn thin and the pattern which was supposed to be concealing stains was failing spectacularly. It probably had never been replaced and was in desperate need of a deep clean. That would maybe get rid of the smell of stale popcorn that seemed to be everywhere in the store but Bucky wasn’t so sure that it hadn’t embedded itself into the very structure of the building.

  
A bored looking teenager watched as Bucky moved past the front counter towards the children’s section. Natasha had told him that she would drag out and set up the VCR if he would run to the video store and then had handed him the address and a list of movies to look for. He had stared at her for a minute before deciding it was easier to go along than argue. Now he was thinking that he should have told her to run herself and he would set up the VCR because since leaving the apartment she has texted him nine times.

  
One was to remind him to pick up popcorn. The second was to pick up candy because they might as well make a night out of this and just snack instead of making actual dinner. Than she texted him complaining that she couldn’t find the box they had packed the VHS and if he was sure they hadn’t just thrown it away. After that she texted him to let him know that she had found the box and was getting everything hooked up. Natasha texted him to see what was taking him so long. If they had all, or at least most, of the movies on the list she had given them because when she had called they had had them. Then it was that Bucky should pick up Coke because they were out. One more asked if they had The Thief and the Cobbler because she hadn’t seen that movie in a while and they should watch it. Finally she asked Bucky what was taking so long to get the movies and get home. Bucky decided that he was just going to ignore her from now on. It would make his life easier for the next 45 minutes.

  
Even though he felt his phone buzzing in his pocket, Bucky ignored it to look at his list and figure out where he was in the alphabet. At standing height the shelves came up to Bucky’s hip and when he got to the letters he needed Bucky just sat down on the floor to find the exact movie. It was too much to ask of his knees to crouch and look for them. He was getting old.

  
He had made it through most of the list Natasha had sent him with and even the ones she had texted him. In fact, Bucky was on his last two movies when a man and his daughter came into the Family Video. Which was great because Bucky already felt a little creepy skulking around the children’s section and now there was actually a child here.

  
It wasn't like Bucky looked like a murder, he just looked like someone you might not want to leave your kid around. It was the long hair mostly but the metal arm contributed and tonight he was wearing a tank top because it had been hot tonight. Because it had been dark before he had even left the apartment he hadn’t really counted on having to not scare little kids tonight.

  
He slunk down into the shelf to see if he could find the movies he was looking for and leave in a hurry but he had no such luck. It felt like the harder he looked the more lost he got in the alphabet. Muttering his ABC’s under his breath, Bucky hadn’t noticed the little girl walking towards him.  
“I like your arm.” She said and Bucky flinched with surprise.

  
“Thanks.”

  
“Is it a tattoo? My daddy has a tattoo.”

  
“No.” Bucky had never had to explain his arm to a kid before. “It’s a fancy prosthetic.”

  
“What’s that?”

  
“It’s an arm that replaces my real arm because I had an accident and I lost my real arm.” Bucky didn’t know if this was weird. He didn’t know if he should be telling this little girl this. Was it going to give her nightmares? Her face looked super sad.

  
“Does it hurt?” Her voice was soft and her eyes were wet.

  
“Not anymore. Now it just feels like an arm.”

  
The little girl stared at his left arm for a long moment before she pulled a sheet of stickers out of her pocket and put a bright, glittery, red star on his shoulder and followed it with a kiss. “Now it can’t hurt anymore. Ever.” She told him.

  
Just then the blond man she had come in with looked over the waist high shelves and immediately went red. “Maggie.” He sounded exasperated. “What have I told you about bothering other people?”

  
“I wasn’t!” Maggie stomped her foot.

  
“She really wasn’t.” Bucky said, sitting on the floor in the children’s section with a red, glittery star on his arm. He wondered how creepy he looked at that moment. Thankfully Dad didn’t seem to be worried about him snatching Maggie but rather that Maggie was bothering him. “She just wanted to know about my arm.”

  
Dad’s hand went to cover his face. “Maggie, what am I going to do with you. That is so rude.”

  
“It’s really ok.” Bucky assured him. “I just hope I didn’t scare her.”

  
“She’ll be fine.” The man rolled his eyes.

  
“Why do you have all those movies? Do you have a baby?”

  
“Oh, no.” This is the part where he looks bad. “My friend and I are watching all the movies we liked as kids.”

  
“That’s really cool.” Maggie said and tilted her head to look at the movies. “I’ve never head of the Thief and the Cobbler.” She said.

  
“It’s really good.” Bucky shifted as his phone started to buzz in his pocket. “That’s my friend, I have to answer this.”

  
“Okay.” Maggie smiled. “It was nice to meet you.”

  
“Thanks for the sticker, Maggie.”

  
Bucky stood up, forgetting the last two movies on the list. He stood up towards the register to take the call. He assured Natasha that he was on his way home and that he had most of the movies, and yes he was bringing snacks home. After he got off the phone he loaded candy and popcorn on top of his stack of movies and went to check out.

  
“Hey, so if I rent one of these movies could you give it to that little girl, Maggie?” Bucky watched the clerks face turn hesitant. “I’ve seen it a million times and she hasn’t. She gave me a sticker so it’s cool. You can check everything out if it makes you feel better.” Bucky leaned against the counter and tried to look respectable.

  
“Sure. Whatever.” After being rung up, Bucky left a not in the Thief and the Cobbler and then left that with the clerk. Natasha had seen it enough that he could left Maggie have it. She’d like it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maggie has questions and Steve uses the phone number Bucky left.

When he got home, Natasha gave him a look and peeled the sticker off his arm. “Put that back.” He said. “It was given to me by a very good friend and now my arm can never hurt again. Ever.”  
Natasha smiled but stuck the sticker back on. “Did you bring me m&ms?”  
“Of course.” He pulled them out of the bag and threw them at her.  
“So you met someone in the children’s section?”  
“Not really. Just his daughter. I let them have The Thief and the Cobbler.”  
“Well that was very nice of you. I’m glad you’ve finally learned to share.”  
Half way through the second movie, Bucky’s phone buzzed. It was from an unknown number but the message made it clear enough who it was. 

Maggie has wrapped tinfoil around her arm and is insisting that she is also a cyborg. She’s also calling you the movie cyborg so you should let me know your name so I can tell her.

I’m Bucky. And I’m glad I haven’t scared her for life. I don’t hang around kids a lot.

Kids are pretty resilient. I mean you didn’t give her the graphic details did you?

Naw, that freaks out most adults.

“Who are you texting?” Natasha said and leaned over to read his texts.  
“The guy at the video store. I left my number in case his daughter had like questions or whatever about my arm.”  
“Yeah, that’s totally why you left him your number.”  
“I had only the purist intentions.” Bucky said as he turned up the volume.  
“Sure, Bucky Bear.”  
The credits began rolling and the conversation with Maggie’s dad had lulled after what Bucky assumed is Maggie’s bedtime. There were no hard feelings because Bucky hadn’t left his number to hit on Maggie’s hot dad, he had left it because he was sure that she was going to have questions. But still maybe a little bit for benefit of Hot Dad too.  
I’m Steve by the way. The text came. Just so everybody knows everybody’s name.  
Well, it’s nice to meet you Steve. Bucky sent back and Natasha rolled her eyes.  
“Already, Bucky?”

Steve texted Bucky a couple times during the week with questions from Maggie about his arm. Is it heavy? No, it feels almost just like his other arm. Can you stick magnets to it? Yes, sometimes his friend Natasha leaves notes for him that way. What do you do if it gets broken? I go to the doctors who designed it.  
Maggie apparently tells people about her friend Bucky. That he’s a cyborg and really cool and has good taste in movies. He liked hearing about the stuff Maggie thinks about him even if most of it is only half true because they’ve only met once for less than ten minutes.  
A few of the texts are just little stories about stuff Maggie does that had nothing to do with Bucky. Still, Bucky thought it was cute that he couldn’t really bring himself to ask Steve why he’s sending them should that encourage him to stop.  
Bucky was trying to figure out how to respond to Steve’s text about how he lost his arm without it being too descriptive or too angst ridden while walking home from his half day of work. Steve, of course, had given him an out if he didn’t want to answer the question but Bucky felt that he should figure out something to say. Maggie had been asking but it really wasn’t a story for little kids.  
He’s pulled out of his phone by someone yelling his name. His head jerked up and he looked around to find the source. Then he noticed a small figure running at him from the park yelling his name again. Bucky looks around for a moment before he clocks Steve getting up from a bench near the playground to follow his daughter. However, he doesn’t seem to be in any rush to get over to them so Bucky leaned down to catch Maggie.  
“Hello, Bucky.” She said as she squeezed him around the neck.  
“Hello, Maggie. How are you?”  
“I missed you.” She was grinning. “Has Daddy been asking you my question?”  
“He has. Has he been telling you my answers?”  
“Yes, but I just wanted to make sure he wasn’t making things up. Daddy used to be a spy.”  
Bucky felt his mouth fall open a little bit and he gaped for a minute. “Yeah? What’s he do now?”  
“He draws stuff. Like cartoons on my lunch bags.” Maggie shrugged. “But I think that is a much more boring job than being a spy.”  
“I was not a spy.” Steve sounded like he’s had this conversation a million times before.  
“What did you do then?” Bucky asked as Maggie disengaged and grabbed his hand and began to lead him back towards the park.  
“I was in the army.”  
“Hey, me too.” Bucky smiled.  
“And you never met?” Maggie asked.  
“The army is a big place.” Steve explained.  
“What did you do, Bucky?” Maggie asked as she settled into his side as they all sat on the bench.  
“Um.” This was the tricky part. He couldn’t really say anything about it. “I was special ops.”  
“That means he did special missions for the army.” Steve stepped in to explain. “And they’re sometimes secret.”  
“Oh.” Maggie studied Bucky’s face for a minute. “Is that how you lost your arm?”  
“Maggie.” Steve snapped. “We talked about how rude that question is.”  
“It’s okay.” Bucky assured him. “Lots of people want to know what happened to my arm so I’m used to it. And there was an accident on my last mission.”  
“I’m sorry.” Maggie said and kissed Bucky’s left bicep.  
At Maggie’s insistence, Bucky ended up having lunch with Steve and Maggie. It was good. Maggie is satisfied with what had happened to his arm and moved on to other topics. She wanted to know what other movies he like and what his favorite flavor of ice cream was. All the most important topics for little kids. They sit in their booth for a while after just talking for a while before Bucky realized that he needed to go home.  
Steve texted him that night to make sure that Bucky knew that he could always so no to them. It wouldn’t have been a big deal. Bucky assured him that it had been nice to have lunch with them and he liked Maggie.  
What about me? Steve texted him  
I guess you’re ok too.  
Bucky shook his head and tucked his phone back into his pocket. Just because he had only worked half a day that day didn’t mean he hadn’t had other things to get done. It was mostly chores and Bucky texted Steve on and off for the rest of the day.  
Dinner and lunch with Maggie and Steve became a regular thing. Mostly Steve hosted because Maggie had to be in bed soon after dinner and the commute between their apartments was a bit long. After dinner there was enough time for a movie or a story for Maggie to wind down and then Steve would put her to bed and Bucky would go home.  
Steve began inviting Bucky to stay after Maggie had been put to bed for a drink and Bucky accepted. It was an excuse to spend time, really.  
“Maggie really likes you, you know.” Steve said as he flopped down on the sofa next to Bucky and laid his head on Bucky’s shoulder.  
“I really like her too.” Bust said as he went stiff for a moment. This was a new turn in their relationship but Bucky liked it. He had just gotten his shoulders to relax and he was considering putting his arm around Steve when Steve jerked upright.  
“I am so sorry.” The tips of his ears were pink and he made to get up off the sofa.  
“It’s fine.” Bucky reached out and pulled Steve back against him. “Do you wanna watch a movie?”  
“Yeah, that would be nice.”  
“We can even watch something PG-13 if you want.”  
“Living dangerously I see.”  
“Well, when you’re with a spy you have to live a little dangerously.”

**Author's Note:**

> I use the missed connections section on craigslist as a prompt generator. I don't keep every full post so this is just the title.


End file.
